Deanna Jinjoe

The journey that enabled me to find my artistic self hasn’t been an easy one but I wouldn’t trade it for anything, I’m not sure where I would be today if it wasn’t for my creative practice.

Just about three years ago I was dealing with some serious, chronic heath issues. I was having fifteen to sixteen migraines a month and intense nerve pain in my back the cause of which has still never been determine. Sleeping was difficult and just getting out of bed to start my day seemed like a huge undertaking. My doctor’s solution was to prescribe pain medication a hundred pills at a time. I wasn’t happy with that answer and I was driven by my pain to seek a solution other than my doctor’s.

One of the solutions I accidentally stumbled on turned out to be art. I happened to be in shopping one day and I wandered down the art supply aisle and was drawn by the starter tubes of acrylic paint and took them home with me. I started playing and dabbling and taking a few online art journaling classes. What I gradually came to realize is that no matter how much physical pain I was in when I started I didn’t feel that pain once I sat down at my easel. Now three years later pain is no longer a significant part of my life. It was the release from the pain while I played with my art that gave me hope I could move beyond that pain and to keep looking for solutions.

I have heard so many stories about how art has changed the lives of people that I am moved to get this message out to anyone who will care to listen. My mission is to help people understand how a creative practice can change their lives and that ANYONE can create, you don’t have to be a Picasso to create work that is meaningful and beautiful to YOU. It is about the process and what the process gives you more so than the finished product. My hope is my story will motivate you to pick up a pencil, paintbrush a child’s watercolor set and just get started creating.